Black Velvet Beetle Cakes

We don’t celebrate Halloween as such in our household. Well we don’t trick or treat or encourage trick or treaters, but I do use it as an opportunity to take something and give it a gruesome twist. Last year was a Sweeney Todd Pie to accompany my Mrs Lovatt costume. This year as inspired by a copy of A Zombie Ate My Cupcake the publishers kindly sent me I used the instructions in the book on how to make black beetles and designed a cake around it. I used marzipan to make the beetles as I had some left from a cake decorating job. In amongst the marzipan beetles modelled on cockroaches and scarab beetles there is one little beetle with friendly eyes. This was the first beetle I made but decided the cakes would be too cute if he was on all of them.

Why have I called them Black Velvet cakes? well given Red Velvet cakes are essentially chocolate cakes with a bucketful of red food colouring (I duck as cake spatulas are hurled at me from Red Velvet Cake enthusiasts) added I decided to christen these Black Velvet cakes because they are simply chocolate cakes with black food colouring added to darken the colour. Weirdly although I used my usual chocolate cake recipe they tasted more chocolatey with the addition of the black food colouring. I’m sure this is purely psychological because the colouring makes the cakes look richer. I’ll admit cocked up slightly with the icing. My own fault for not adding the icing sugar gradually. I added too much icing sugar and it turned almost in to a paste, but I was able to spread it on to the cakes without too many problems. Thankfully in this case the icing was acting more like a glue and would be hidden under the edible dirt.

Gross fact: black marzipan when accidentally rolled the wrong way looks suspiciously like mouse/rat/bat droppings. While this could have given the cakes a rather disturbing twist I didn’t think the recipients of the cakes, Hubs’ workmates, would appreciate it or ever ask me to bake for them again! I’ve entered these cakes to English Mum’s Big Autumn Bakeoff.

2) In a bowl beat together the butter and caster sugar until it is light and fluffy then one at a time stir in the eggs. Don’t worry if it begins to look curdled. Mix in the vanilla extract.

3) Fill each liner 2/3 with cake mix. Bake for 15-20 min until risen and pass the cocktail stick test.

4) While the cakes are cooling make the beetles. First knead black food colouring into the marzipan until evenly coloured. Pinch off a Malteser sized piece of marzipan and roll into a rugby ball shape. Place on a piece of clingfilm and gently press to flatten. Shape into a beetle shape. Mark the head and wings using a teaspoon. Add additional detail with a knife and cocktail stick. Brush lightly with lustre dust. Roll six mini sausages out of the marzipan about 1.5 cm long. Attach two of the legs near the head and the other four to the rear. Leave on the clingfilm to dry for few hours.

5) In a bowl beat together the butter, then gradually add the icing sugar and cocoa until light and fluffy. Slowly add the black food colouring until you have the desired colour. Adding a small amount of red dye can help it stop looking like something you may concrete bricks together with. Using a pallet knife use nearly all of the buttercream to coat the cakes.

6) In a blender blitz the Oreo biscuits (or similar chocolate biscuit) then coat the cakes with this edible dirt. Pat down slightly to help it stick.

7) Place a small blob of buttercream on the bottom of the beetle then stick on to the cake. It helps keep the beetle on the cake if you mould it slightly to the shape of the cake.

I agree with you about the red velvet and food colouring. I’m laughing because I sometimes send things in for my husband’s work mates (many different nationalities) and cannot imagine what they’d think if they received cakes with edible beetles on them! I’ve got some of the edible lustre so might have to find time to make some for them as well as the trick or treaters.

Do you have black cocoa available over there? It’s a specially processed dutched cocoa that’s nearly black and can negate the use of any food dye. In th US, it’s available from King Arthur Flour. http://tinyurl.com/kafcoco

These are cool! We have an annual Halloween dinner where we try to invent spooky/ghoulish food…ours this year is this thurs as we were away for Halloween….quite excited! Going to try and make a severed hand with coloured jelly and strawberry bootlaces! xxx

These are lovely, fantastic. Also I find Nigella’s Guinness chocolate cake comes out really darkly coloured so then you could escape from adding extra food colouring. I’m with you on the Red Velvet by the way, I was distraught when I discovered it was just chocolate and food colouring, I had hoped it would be something really special. Sad times.

I’m so glad you like them, even if you are horrified! Some of Hubs’ workmates refused to eat the cakes because they were so freaked out by the beetles. In a true macarbe twist the cakes did contain real beetles thanks to the cochineal I used to help darken the cakes. These beetles are making a reappearance this Halloween on a black forest gateaux style cake.

[…] the first Derby Clandestine Cake Club theme would be Trick or Treat I knew that last year’s Black Beetle Cakes would have to make a reappearance but in a slightly different form. The Clandestine Cake Club […]

[…] of thing. His current workmates have been testers for my baking experiments over the years from the Beetle Cakes (that left some horrified) to not so successful bakes that, because they are blokes, were still […]

[…] As anyone who has read the fabulous Raymond Briggs book – Fungus the Bogeyman will know, bogeymen love nothing better than dark, damp, grimy places and food that us Drycleaners (aka humans) wouldn’t touch. Cam, who was at the party, decided he was going to make Bogeyman cupcakes. Due to black buttercream being nigh on impossible to make and can have a funny after taste we went for more of a storm cloud grey colour. Then I bended some Oreos down to be the edible dirt. The rest of the decorating was all his own creation and imagination. He also included a spider with red eyes for Grandma who doesn’t like the creepy arachnids. I thought his ideas were so great I had to share them with you showing that yes boys can make cakes too. If you wanted to make similar cakes to Cam follow the instructions on my Beetle Cupcakes post. […]

[…] the first Derby Clandestine Cake Club theme would be Trick or Treat I knew that last year’s Black Beetle Cakes would have to make a reappearance but in a slightly different form. The Clandestine Cake Club […]